We Knew Each Other Before We Met
by KudleyFan93
Summary: Oneshot. It's a shocking revelation when you see someone you grew up with in school for the first time in years. What if this happened to the cast of Regular Show? Well, it all began in their preschool days... Cuteness and slight hints of Mordegaret near the end. You can say it is a little AU...


**So here's an AU story I came up with. I haven't written alot of cute kid stuff in a while and I had this on my mind for a few days. This took a while to write. XD **

**Anyway, I'll stop rambling now. Warning! Cuteness and slight Mordegaret romance ahead! You have been warned!**

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Mordecai Quintel clutched his mother's well-manicured, bracelet-laden hand as they walked through the shining hallways of the Creative Minds daycare and preschool center. The chalky-white walls were covered in displays of classroom pride in the form of sheets of colorful construction paper with glued on macaroni designs, glitter, and even Popsicle stick art. Running along the wall just below the ceiling was a line of linked colored paper cut-outs in the shape of balloons, each with a name on them. Some were clearly written by an adult in black marker. Others had childish scribbles in crayon, barely decipherable as names. The blue jay stared in wide-eyed rapt fascination as they passed each door. He was very excited for his first day of preschool but also extremely nervous and scared. At the tender age of four Mordecai was very small for his age and the ginormous walls and doors loomed over him like skyscrapers.

"Here we are, dear. Mrs. Blossomforth's classroom." Mordecai's mother chimed musically in her usual cheery tone as she angled her eager son towards the door. The door was decorated with murals depicting a large white stork with a bright yellow-orange beak and long golden legs. Gripped securely in its beak, the stork held a laughing baby cradled in an enormous white sling with the baby's legs wagging happily on the side nearest the stork. Clearly, from the advertisement over the door, the Daycare's nursery was a place of contentment and pleasure for the toddlers who were lucky enough to spend their day with the cheerful faces of the commercial aproned nannies who ran that section of the Daycare center. Mordecai peeped in disapproval as his mother released his hand from her thoughtful grip and opened the door to the classroom.

A kindly looking woman in a fuzzy knitted sweater and a long dotted skirt approached Mordecai and his mother, smiling cheerfully down at the quaking blue jay. She nodded understandingly at his reaction and knelt down next to him, saying in a soft reassuring voice, "You must be little Mordecai Quintel. Hello there. I'm Ms. Blossomforth. Are you excited for your first day here at Creative Minds?" She offered a small wave. Mordecai liked her already. Ms. Blossomforth smelled like flowers and her warm maternal smile made him feel much more comfortable around her. He nodded and flashed her a shy smile, cowering behind his mother's tall legs bashfully as a hot red blush peppered his face.

Ms. Blossomforth chuckled and got back onto her legs. She shook hands with Mordecai's mother, "I'm glad you two could make it today. We're always looking forward to new guests, and trust me; the kids here can't seem to get enough friends." Giggling she made a hand gesture towards the middle of the room where chaos ensued.

The sheer decibel of noise made Mordecai's skin crawl. The room was filled with children his own age, most of them no older than five years old at best, albeit most of them were from two-to-three years old. They laughed and screamed in glee as they fitted about the spacious room. It had a faded red carpeted floor, well-worn from years of kids playing on it. There were dolls, cars, blocks, crayons, action figures, animal plushies, costumes and books strewn everywhere. At the center of the room were several large tables with plastic kiddie-style chairs circled around them. In the corner was a pile of mats used for the occasional naptime. One wall was decorated in big letters, going from A to Z in order across the wall, each with a little picture of some object that matched the letter. 'A' had a big red apple drawn next to it, 'B' a yellow school bus and so on. The other wall was lined with cubbies, each with a laminated yellow name tag on it. Beside that was a very large toy chest overflowing with toys. Mordecai was enthralled with the freakish amount of toys that overflowed from the toy chest.

Diapers and training pants were worn in lieu of pants by most of the children who played happily on the huge carpeted play area that lay behind the short wooden bars that separated the toddler's play zone from the rest of the center. Mordecai noticed that sucking one's thumb appeared to be obligatory behavior at the Daycare. Not a single child's mouth whose hands were unengaged was free of either a thumb or a pacifier. They crawled and tottered about the carpet, moving from toy to toy without let or interference. Several members of the group of older children were dressed in nothing more than T-shirts and training pants.

"Okay sweetiepie, Mommy has to go to work now, okay? She's going to leave you here with Ms. Blossomforth and all of these nice children, okay honey? I'll be back this afternoon to come and pick you up." Mordecai's mother said, lifting her son into a tight hug as she pecked his cheeks with numerous kisses. Mordecai cocked his head in confusion. Why would his Mommy leave him when there were tons of toys they could play with together?

"No mommy, don't leave me!" Mordecai squealed, wrapping his arms around his mother's neck. His large eyes filled with tears, ready to burst at any given minute as his mother fished out her car keys. His mother laughed and said in a calm voice, "Sweetheart, mommy has to go. I promise I'll be back later. You're going to have so much fun today; I doubt you'll ever want to leave!" Mordecai shook his head from side to side wildly, his tears flying off into the air. Mordecai's mother gently kissed his forehead and handed him over to Ms. Blossomforth before making a motion for the door. Mordecai began to weep silently as she left. Ms. Blossomforth hugged him consolingly and made small mothering noises to soothe him.

"It's okay Mordecai, it's alright, sweet boy. You're going to have lots of fun today, I promise you that. We're going to read a story, have some animal crackers and juice for a snack, and then we'll have some fun with finger-painting. Plus you'll be able to make some new friends. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Ms. Blossomforth cooed, using her thumb to wipe his tears away. Mordecai hiccupped and was silent for a moment before uttering in a small voice, "I like animal crackers." He gave a tiny smile to prove his point.

"There's that sweet smile! Now I'm going to go pick out a book for storytime. While I do that, why don't you go and socialize with the other children? You never know; you might just have fun doing so. So how about it?" Ms. Blossomforth crooned. Mordecai sniffled and bobbed his head up and down slowly, accepting his fate. The teacher smiled and gently set him down onto the carpeted floor, and then left to prepare for storytime.

Mordecai looked around and spotted a few interesting groups of children. The first pair he saw was four little boys. One was a small pink boy with a massive round head which reminded Mordecai of a lollipop. He sat with two other toddlers playing with Chubs Stackables building blocks. The second boy was a brown raccoon who sucked on his thumb whilst he hugged his tail to his chest protectively. The third boy was a gumball machine who tiredly played along with the lollipop kid and the raccoon boy. He appeared desperate and couldn't wait to get away from the mindless tots. The fourth and final boy was another brown raccoon who looked strikingly similar to the other raccoon. Mordecai figured that the two raccoons were somehow related.

Mordecai then looked to the right and saw four little girls sitting at a table giggling. One girl was a red robin wearing a baby blue colored shirt with a picture of a smiling unicorn on the front. She wore a pair of white, fleecy pantyhose as well as pink ballerina shoes. A thick pair of Pull-Ups with designs of Powerpuff Girls on it blossomed out from underneath her crotch and a tu-tu was wrapped around her waist. She was the perfect aplomb of innocence and purity. The second girl was a brown-haired, golden-skinned mole wearing a dark blue pair of shortalls along with a red, blue, and orange-striped shirt beneath them appeared on her shrinking body. She wore a small pair of red tennis shoes to match her outfit. Even her socks were plain and simple; a delicate white. Obviously she wasn't fully potty-trained as the outlines of a thick Pull-Up were visible from beneath her outfit. The third girl was a cloud, to put it simply. She donned a baby blue T-shirt as well as green shorts. She appeared to be shoeless and bare-footed. Her long, flowing white hair was tied into a long ponytail. The fourth and final girl was chubbier than the other three girls and her skin was an odd green color. Her light brown hair was tied into two pig-tails on her head. She sported a gaudy, flashy, bright pink dress and two black boots. As he looked closer, the starry-eyed girls were giggling and whispering gossip into each other's ears as they had their own little tea party. They would all sip from their tiny cups of pretend tea and compliment each other's appearances.

Mordecai then looked towards the other side of the room and saw another young boy, a yeti child, sitting in the corner of the room wearing nothing but a pair of jeans alongside another green-colored large child who wore a messy grey shirt and green pants. Beside the green child was a floating apparition with two little buckteeth sticking out of his transparent mouth. The three boys were playing with toy trucks and cars, adding "car" noises for effect. These boys looked to be about five or six. Mordecai knew if he went over there to play with those boys that he would surely he pummeled to the ground. They were much bigger and visibly stronger than him, not to mention they were playing pretty rough with their toys. Although the yeti child looked friendlier than the other two, he was the biggest out of the three.

Mordecai was at a loss on who to pick. He wanted to hang out with any of the boys, but was afraid that he would be rejected by either assemblage. So he turned to the group of girls, but wondered if they would reject him since he was a boy. It was a win-win either way. Then Mordecai looked to another side of the room and noticed a small tan goat boy wearing a grey T-shirt and brown pants along with a pair of red sneakers. He had no toys, no one to play with, no nothing, and obviously he was rather lonely over there by himself. He had his hands folded in his lap and was wiggling his feet in a jaded fashion.

Mordecai felt bad for the boy, so being the kind person he was he walked over to the boy and stuck out his wing. "Hi, I'm Mordecai! What's your name?" He greeted. The little goat boy shakily held out his hand, ears folding slightly as he said in a small, timid voice, "I-I'm Thomas."

Mordecai sensed that the boy was uncomfortable, so he sat down next to him. "Hey, don't be shy. I won't hurt ya. What's wrong?"

"I-I'm scared that no one here will like me." Thomas replied quietly, holding his knees to his face as he curled up into a fetal position. "My mommy left me here. She said she'd come back later but that'll be ages from now. She works really late."

"Oh," Mordecai temporized. A smile was etched across his beak as an idea hit him. "How about we make a deal: you go meet the other kids over there and I'll be with you the whole time. I promise."

"Okay."

"Let's start small and simple. That's what my mommy always tells me. We'll go meet the girls over there first and then we'll go see the boys, okey-dokey?"

"Okay."

"Great," Mordecai said, standing up. He grabbed Thomas' hand and lifted him up as well. The two boys then slowly walked over to the group of girls who giggled and chattered on to each other. As the boys got closer the girls got quiet and craned their heads to look at the new visitors.

The robin was the first to speak. "Oh, hi there boys." Her sweet, melodic voice made Mordecai's heart soar. His heart pumped fiercely and his felt his cheeks go up in flames, burning them a bright red. "H-hi. I'm Mordecai and this is—" "Thomas." Thomas said softly.

The robin smiled, "I'm Margaret."

The mole beside her spoke up, waving, "Hi! I'm Eileen."

Then the cloud girl said, "I'm Cloudy Jay, but you can call me CJ instead."

Lastly the green chubby girl spoke up, "And I'm Starla! Don't you think my outfit is fabulous?" She whipped her hair and winked at Mordecai. Mordecai rolled his eyes, "Uh, sure. We just wanted to say hi and…is it okay if we become friends?"

"Sure!" Margaret chirped happily. "And I think you're cute." She giggled.

Mordecai flushed red and grinned, "R-really?

Margaret smiled, "Of course! I like your hair too. Blue's my second favorite color."

Starla groaned, "No one cares Margie!" She glanced at Mordecai and puffed out her lips suggestively, "You know…Blue is my first favorite color!"

"Actually, it's your _favorite color_, not your _first favorite color_. That's bad grammar." Eileen reminded. Starla glared at the mole, "Shut up beaver! I can say what I want!"

"Miss Starla! Inside voices please!" Ms. Blossomforth said as she walked by, firing the girl a reprimanding matriarchal glance. Starla put on her innocent face, "Okay Ms. Blossomforth."

Ms. Blossomforth nodded, "Now everyone stop what you're doing. It's story time! Gather around on the magic carpet, everyone! And no dawdling or fighting, please!"

Immediately the children in the room postponed their activities and ran towards the front of the classroom. Ms. Blossomforth hushed the children and pulled out a pack of big cards. "Okay children, now we're going to practice our letters. I'll show the card and call on one of you to tell me what letter it is. The rest of you have to be quiet though. If you can stay quiet for me, everyone will get another star on their charts."

The teacher began to flip the cards up, calling on the eager children one at a time. The children's hand shot up into the air faster than light as soon as the first card was revealed. Ms. Blossomforth pointed to one of the little raccoon boys from earlier and said, "Don."

Don smiled, "It's an F!"

"Very good, Don. Next one," Ms. Blossomforth flipped another card and pointed to a boy otter, "Doug."

Doug was silent for a moment before piping up, "It's an R!"

"Good job!" Ms. Blossomforth praised. She flipped another card and pointed to a white ostrich who had his arm upraised, "Jeremy?"

Jeremy shook his head and pointed to the possum boy seated beside him, "We wanna answer it together."

Ms. Blossomforth sighed. Chad and Jeremy never did anything without each other. They could hardly go to the restroom without going as a duo. "Okay, Jeremy, Chad, what is the answer?"

"It's a W." The duo answered simultaneously. Ms. Blossomforth nodded, "Correct!" She moved on to another letter. "Now what is this one, Audrey?" She pointed to a blonde human girl. Audrey smiled, "It's a Y!" Ms. Blossomforth nodded again and revealed the next letter, pointing to a green-colored boy. "Techmo?"

Techmo shrugged, "It's a D."

"Correct. One more letter and we're done. Quips?" Ms. Blossomforth pointed at another small yeti child wearing a yellow shirt and brown pants. Quip grinned, "It's a P! Hey, I've got a joke, ya wanna hear it?! What did the European jester say when his king was goin' to the bathroom? Eur-o-pean! Get it? 'Cuz he was peein'!" He giggled uproariously as the class and teacher stared at him blankly.

"Well…you got it correct, but schooltime is no time for goofing off, Quips." Ms. Blossomforth said flatly. The class "ooooohed" and giggled as Quips sighed in disappointment. Ms. Blossomforth then folded the cards back together and laid them on her desk, grabbing the storybook she had saved.

Since the preschool worked on a half-day schedule it mercifully came to an end not much later. After enduring Ms. Blossomforth's reading from Winnie the Pooh they were told they could have free playtime until their moms or dads arrived to take them. Inspired children raced back to where they had left off from earlier and, from that moment on, the room was abuzz with eager toddlers screeching and laughing in glee. Mordecai, however, was confused on what to do next. There were so many different and new and exciting things to do, but he simply couldn't choose. He looked over in one corner of the room and saw the same lollipop-shaped pink child, gumball machine, and two raccoons from earlier sitting at a table, coloring (mostly scribbling) onto pieces of paper. Jugs of glue, glitter, and stickers littered the table as well as a rainbow of crayons, markers, and pencils. The blue jay smiled and padded over to the group. "Hi there! I'm Mordecai! Whatcha guys doin'?" He said happily.

One of the raccoons, Don, spoke up first. He looked at Mordecai and grinned, "My name's Don! And this is my big brother Rigby!" He gestured to the grumpy-looking raccoon sitting next to him. Mordecai snickered. Rigby was Don's _BIG_ brother? Funny. Rigby glared at his younger brother, "Shut up Don! And don't even think about giving him your stupid sugar!"

"Aww, but Rigby, I give everyone sugar!" Don pouted. Mordecai smiled, "It's okay, I'll have some sugar. I love sugar!" He was surprised when Don suddenly wrapped him into a bone-crunching hug. The raccoon patted Mordecai's back and released him from the hug. "See Rigby? I gave him some sugar and he liked it! See? I told you!" Don giggled, sitting down again. Rigby rolled his eyes and continued to color his "masterpiece".

"And who're you guys?" Mordecai asked the other two. The gumball machine held out his hand, "I'm Benson." "And I'm Pops!" The pink kid exclaimed, giggling. "Cool," Mordecai replied, shaking both of their hands as he pulled up a chair. "Can I draw too?"

"But of course!" Pops grinned, handing him a fresh piece of paper and a blue crayon. Mordecai nodded in thanks and proceeded to sketch the rough draft portion of his incipient drawing. Then he discovered that it was harder than he thought. His fingers weren't coordinated properly. It took all his concentration to stay, mostly, within the lines. His mother had always taught him how to be neat and to stay within the lines. While most of the time she was an extremely talented professional seamstress, she was also a part-time artist. He had watched her sketch out the blueprints of her future outfit designs and color them in. It looked so easy at the time, but now he realized how difficult it was. He gave up eventually and casually colored in his drawing without worrying about quality.

After an hour of play, Ms. Blossomforth came and led the children over to groups of toddler-sized plastic tables and chairs. She sat them down and set paper plates of carrot sticks and a tiny wax cup of milk in front of each child. Mordecai loosed a groan and declined the vegetables at first. He had always hated vegetables, and he was usually forced to eat them if he refused. After some persuasion from Ms. Blossomforth, he reluctantly agreed to her terms and crunched and munched on the foul veges until the plate was empty, and then he downed the milk in a single draught. Ms. Blossomforth was supervising the midmorning snack replaced his cup with a full one immediately. He drank the second serving as well and was surprised when she replaced the cup again and he was forced to drink a third cup of milk. That time however, he drank more slowly as if he wasn't thirsty anymore. Ms. Blossomforth looked satisfied and looked for other children to bedevil with her brew. When the other children had finished their snacks, naptime was in order.

Mordecai was overjoyed to learn that his sleeping spot was right next to Margaret's. As they were laid down for naptime, he looked at Margaret and smiled. She had already closed her eyes and peacefully drifted off into the sea of dreams. She looked beautiful in his eyes. Her soft snores rose up from her as she slept, almost like an angel's delicate breathing. That was the last thing Mordecai saw before he too fell asleep.

When naptime was over the children were woken by Ms. Blossomforth. When all of the children were awake and preoccupied with their toys, she fetched a large rolled-up sheet from the school closet. She spread it across the carpet in the middle of the room until it covered half the space. She then brought in a bundle of white garments. Mordecai and the other children watched as Ms. Blossomforth began slipping smocks over children's heads, covering up their clothing. Baggy arm-holes left their hands free.  
The reason for their new wardrobes was soon revealed. Ms. Blossomforth then brought in several painters' buckets filled with various colors of paint. She also had large sheets of paper for each child. She set them down in the middle of the protective sheet and then clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Okay children, we're going to do something really fun today!" Ms. Blossomforth announced. "It's time for finger-painting!" She declared musically. A loud cheer rose up from the crowd of children and they scrambled to get their own papers and paints. Mordecai grabbed a bucket of yellow and blue paint, unsure of what to do. Rigby noticed Mordecai's inactivity with his tools and scooted over to him, "Come on dude! Paint somethin'! Get messy! It'll be fun!"

Mordecai sighed and looked over towards the other children. He noticed that Doug, the otter boy, had moved beyond finger-painting, dipping his feet into the green bucket and slapping his bare soles back and forth on his canvas to create lots of green footprints. Slowly, Mordecai dipped his wing into the bucket of blue and dipped the other into the yellow bucket. He rubbed his wings together and chuckled in pleasure. Aside from the pleasant squishing sensation he was delighted to find that both his hands were now a brand new color; green!

The rest of the afternoon breezed by without further incident; everyone was having such a good time together and Mordecai finally made a couple of great friends. He despised Chad, Jeremy, and Doug, not to mention that "class-clown" (as Quips was called by many children) Quips' constant jokes made him want to gag, but that was fine by him. Many secrets were also revealed that day; Mordecai learned that Benson had a huge crush on Audrey and that Don was the most likeable toddler in the entire classroom. He also discovered that he and CJ had a lot in common, despite their different genders.

But at the end of the day Mordecai also got to know Rigby better. There was an instant bond between the two of them and they were fast friends within minutes of conversation.

When Mordecai's mother arrived to pick him up, Mordecai didn't want to leave his friends behind. With the other mother's parental permission, a playdate was arranged for that evening as well as a sleepover. Mordecai's mother was relieved to know that her little boy finally made some friends. Maybe now he wouldn't need his imaginary friend Charlie anymore. It made tears come to her eyes as she realized the inevitable; her baby boy was growing up.

As for Mordecai, he was eager for the next day at preschool. And who could blame him? ALL of his friends would be there. He knew that there would be many sleepovers and playdates ahead of him. Too many for his mother to handle, that is.

**The End **

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**Cliched ending, but at least the story was good! I think I could have done better, though...**

**And yeah, you can say this was very AU. And I promise I'll update ABoLK:SEttM before Thanksgiving comes. That's a promise!**


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